Sessions judge accused of torturing minor girl made OSD

ISLAMABAD: A couple of weeks after the minor maid accused a serving additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ) and his family of torturing her, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday made the judge an officer on special duty (OSD).

Khurram Ali Khan, who was working as the ADSJ civil and district court division (East), has been transferred to the IHC as OSD, said a notification issued by IHC Registrar Raja Jawad Abbas Hassan.

“The IHC under the direction of its administrative committee is pleased to withdraw the services of Raja Khurram Ali Khan… and placed in this Court (IHC) with immediate effect, till further orders.”

The judge would be entitled to receive pay equivalent to that of a BPS-20 officer.

This is the second time ADSJ Khurram has been made an OSD. In September 2013, he was suspended for the misuse of authority for eight months.

The IHC withdrew his judicial powers after the then chairman Capital Development Authority (CDA) Nadeem Hassan Asif sent an official complaint against him to the IHC for providing relief to a party in a land dispute.

After the alleged torture on the 10-year-old girl surfaced through the social media, IHC Chief Justice Mohammad Anwar Khan Kasi ordered an inquiry on Dec 30.

The ADSJ, however, managed a compromise deal with the parents of the minor girl on the basis of which his spouse obtained a pre-arrest bail from ADSJ Raja Asif Mehmood on Jan 3.

The same day, another ADSJ, Atta Rabbani, handed over the custody of the maid to her parents.

Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Saqib Nisar on January 4 took a suo motu notice of the case.

On January 11, the CJP observed that lawyer Raja Zahoor Hassan, who was the counsel for Tayyaba’s parents, had played the key role in materialising the compromise between the accused and the father of the child.

Later, ADSJ Rabbani handed over the minor girl to her parents in “haste.” The advocate general Islamabad also told the apex court that as per police record Raja Zahoor Hassan “is a relative of the accused party.”

The apex court also summoned records of the entire proceedings from the district and sessions judge Islamabad.

According to the records presented to the Supreme Court, ADSJ Raja Asif entertained the pre-arrest bail of the judge’s wife after the court time was over.

The SHO Industrial Area told the apex court that when he appeared before ADSJ Raja Asif, the latter had already granted an interim bail to the spouse of the judge.

In his order granting the bail, ADSJ Asif stated that the offence was bailable and “the matter has also been patched up between the parties and family members of the complainant who do not want to pursue the case.”

The judge accused the police of registering the case with “mala fide” intentions.

The record related to the handing over of Tayyaba to her parents showed that ADSJ Rabbani had passed a number of directions on January 3.

He directed the crisis centre to release Tayyaba and asked the SHO Industrial Area to produce her before the court the same day.

In the judgment, ADSJ Rabbani noted, “since the detenue is a minor girl and would be safe in the lap of her parents, not in the crisis centre.”

ADSJ Rabbani then handed over Tayyaba to her parents who had left her at the mercy of the ADSJ when she was just seven-and-a-half years old on a monthly salary of Rs 3,000.